Saturday's beautiful weather gave way to a fun-packed show of campus talent in Hogg Memorial Auditorium Saturday night - the annual Asian American Campus Ministry Talent Show performed for an audience of more than 1,100, including parents and high school students as well as UT students. This year's theme, Dare to Move, promoted awareness of AIDS worldwide and within the Austin community. Various campus organizations, including Asian sorority Alpha Sigma Rho and the Asian Business Students' Association presented skits to a captivated audience. Other participants including Free Axis, Momentum, ReACTsion and AACMappella, treated the audiend to dance, band and cappella numbers. Several interviews and video clips interspersed between the acts depicted gripping visuals and information on AIDS.
The most popular act was the "Mario" performance. Accounting senior Alex Nguyen, marketing senior Cameron Wu, finance senior David Ha and liberal arts freshman Spencer Nguyen dressed up as Mario, Luigi, Toad and Wario, respectively. They played various "Mario" themes on the xylophone and drums while reenacting various "Mario" moments such as Mario dodging fireballs and Luigi becoming invincible with the Starman item.
"The Mario one was my favorite performance," said computer sciences graduate student Shawn Yu. "The music was very good, the drums were good and the action was very funny. That's what I loved the most."
"I am HIV positive," said guest speaker Christopher Yuan. "Someday I will die of AIDS." A former drug addict and dentistry student, Yuan shared how a "typical Asian kid who obeyed Mom and Dad and took piano lessons" ended up in prison for possessing and trafficking the equivalent of 9.1 tons of marijuana.
"Really, I'm no different than everyone else," Yuan said. "I want to encourage people to live with a sense of urgency. Life is short, life is precious, and it took me getting HIV to learn this lesson. I hope I can encourage people to learn this lesson through my mistakes."
"It's a great line-up, great show, [and] a great cause," said McNeil ninth grader Oriana Wong.
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